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S T U D E N T S
Can you "throw your O" with your feet? The answer
is yes—if you're lucky enough to be wearing the
prototype sneakers first-year Sports
Product Management master's degree
candidate Jangkyu "JK" Lee developed
during winter break.
The story behind the O-centric shoes
started this past December soon after
the finish of fall term. Lee, who came to
program from Korea, knew
he wouldn't be heading
home for winter break.
Instead, he decided to
take advantage of the
Portland-based program's
Innovation Lab.
Another international student—
New Zealander Jeremy Gin—was
also logging serious hours in the Innovation Lab.
Anticipating his graduation this March, Gin was busy
designing and building a sneaker collection to round
out his job-search portfolio.
Inspired by Gin's work, Lee asked the second-year student to
share some sneaker-making basics. Lee was soon off and running
creating his own sneaker designs—including the black and green
"throw your O" shoes.
Lee and Gin spent the rest of winter
break bouncing ideas off each other and
building shoes—interspersed with the
occasional trek across the Willamette
River to catch a Trail Blazers game.
"If someone is really eager to learn and is
investing the time to be here, it's like, hey,
let's learn off each other,"
said Gin. "I showed JK a few
things that I've learned,
and he ended up showing
me a few things. It was just
a snowball effect."
"JK and Jeremy's stories are
the exact reason we keep the
Innovation Lab open 24/7, even
during school breaks," said SPM director and cofounder
Ellen Schmidt-Devlin. "Hands-on projects like these give
our students a gut-level understanding of the product
life cycle, so we are committed to giving them access
to a place where they can make their ideas a reality."
B Y K I T A L DER D I CE